To the general public, the demonstrations at Balcombe against fracking may seem more farcical than convincing. Even before the arrest yesterday of the Green Party MP Caroline Lucas – for illegally blocking the entry to the drilling site, along with other protesters – it was clear that any rational debate had been drowned out by a shrieking chorus of environmental zealots, anti-capitalist activists and plain old Left-wing eccentrics, who had decided to make the West Sussex village the latest pit stop for their travelling circus of protest. The crowning irony was that these campaigners were not protesting against fracking at all, given that Cuadrilla, the firm running the site, was simply drilling an exploratory oil well on a site abandoned in the Eighties.

This struggle, however, is deadly serious – for its outcome will do much to determine whether Britain embraces the rewards that shale gas offers. This resource can help us cut carbon emissions, increase our energy security, lower fuel costs and enrich local communities and the nation as a whole; or we can listen to the new Luddites, peddling their hysterical fictions about its environmental consequences, and forsake a priceless opportunity. The comparison has been made with the Nineties, when the efforts of eco-warriors such as the notorious “Swampy” succeeded in derailing plans for road-building. But this battle is far more significant, given the potential importance of shale to Britain’s economy, and its fledgling recovery.

This is not, of course, to argue that wells should be sunk willy-nilly, whatever the wishes of those living nearby. It is entirely natural that the residents of Balcombe and elsewhere should have doubts about fracking taking place under their feet, despite the reassuring scientific evidence, or should worry about the potential disturbance, or simply hold out for a greater share of the proceeds (the Local Government Association, for example, has suggested that communities should receive between 5 and 10 per cent of the revenues, rather than the miserly 1 per cent currently on offer, after an initial £100,000 payment).

But if it is hard to persuade locals to permit fracking, how much harder will it be if they fear that they will immediately be invaded by the eco-loonies? The idea of playing host to their encampments, of having the rural calm disturbed by increasingly raucous and unlawful attempts by extremists to drive the drillers from the land, would be enough to make anyone think twice. That is why, as well as stepping up their efforts to explain the facts of fracking to those in Balcombe and far beyond, David Cameron and his ministers must do whatever is necessary to stand up to these enemies of progress.